Welcome to WWEMA Connection, a monthly blog that will provide you with a glimpse of the water and wastewater industry from the manufacturers’ perspective.

As president of the Water and Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers Assn. (WWEMA), I am delighted that Water & Wastes Digest has invited me to contribute to their coverage of the industry in this way. Providing our communities and industries with clean, safe water takes a major team effort, and certainly the companies that develop, produce and service the technologies you use play key positions on that team.

At the dawn of this New Year, there are many issues facing manufacturers and their municipal and industrial customers alike. Among the topics this blog will examine in the coming months:

• New technologies. WWEMA is partnering with the U.S. Water Alliance in March and the American Water Works Association in June to explore the challenges the industry faces in adopting and applying emerging technologies. This blog will share some of our findings and recommendations and how they can affect your ability to innovate within your operations.
• Value-based procurement. “Lowest bid” procurement methods often do not work when seeking complex technologies. We’ll discuss how you can improve long-term satisfaction with your equipment purchases by considering additional factors such as life-cycle costs, service capabilities and others.
• Fair and open trade. We’ll examine how we as an industry can work together to promote trade practices that decrease project delays, increase job creation and stimulate the economy.

The beauty of blogs is that they allow for immediate feedback and discussion. I encourage you to share your thoughts each month in the comments section or by e-mail at info@wwema.org so that we can work together, as partners, to develop solutions to the many challenges facing our industry. I also invite you to visit the WWEMA website at www.wwema.org to learn more about the association and its membership.

Dawn Kristof Champney is president of WWEMA, a Washington, D.C.-based trade organization that has represented the interests of manufacturers serving the water supply and wastewater treatment industry since 1908. Kristof Champney can be reached at info@wwema.org.